AAS 2022
FILM EXPO
ALL FILM SCREENINGS ARE OPEN TO THE PUBLIC* *Conference registration is not required.
Schedule By Date
Thursday, March 24, 2022
2
SCREENING TIME
FILM TITLE
LENGTH
Q&A COUNTRY OF FOCUS
PAGE
12:30pm
Americaville
80 min
ONLINE
China, United States
6
2:00pm
THE MOUNTAIN PATH - my search for a hermit Zen master in China
96 min
ONLINE
China
6
3:50pm
Zero as You Are
84 min
ONLINE
Japan
8
5:25pm
DWANDHA (The Duel): A Tale of Two Rebels 52 min
IN PERSON
Sri Lanka
11
Friday, March 25, 2022 SCREENING TIME
FILM TITLE
LENGTH
Q&A COUNTRY/REGION OF FOCUS
8:30am
Death of the One who Knows
82 min
10:00am
The Ice Cream Sellers
75 min
11:25am
Baato
12:55pm
PAGE
Indonesia
13
ONLINE
Bangladesh
11
81 min
ONLINE
Nepal
12
Abandoned: The Stories of Japanese War Orphans in The Philippines and China
98 min
ONLINE
The Philippines, China, Japan
8
2:45pm
KIM IL SUNG's Children
85 min
ONLINE
North Korea, Eastern Europe
9
4:20pm
Now Is the Past – My Father, Java & the Phantom Films
88 min
IN PERSON
Japan, Indonesia, and Netherlands
13
6:00pm
COMFORT
73 min
IN PERSON
South Korea, China
9
Schedule By Date
Saturday, March 26, 2022 SCREENING TIME FILM TITLE
LENGTH
Q&A COUNTRY OF FOCUS
PAGE
8:30am
Forget Me Not
86 min
ONLINE
South Korea
10
10:05am
Kingdom of Archers
87 min
ONLINE
Bhutan
12
11:35am
Geographies of Kinship
80 min
IN PERSON
Republic of Korea, United States, Switzerland, Sweden
10
1:05pm
Far East Deep South
77 min
IN PERSON
United States
14
2:35pm
Beethoven in Beijing
86 min
IN PERSON
China
7
4:10pm
Our Time Machine
81 min
ONLINE
China
7
5:40pm
Banyak Ayam Banyak Rejeki (Many Chickens, Lots of Luck)
102 min
ONLINE
Indonesia/Yogyakarta (and Central Java)
14
Film titles in each regional section are listed in order of presentation and include director/producer, year of release, countries of focus, duration, film description, and distribution contacts.
Screenings are located in the Hawaiʻi Convention Center, Theatre 320, Level 3 3
On-demand screenings are located in the Hawaiʻi Convention Center, Theatre 319A, Level 3
CHINA & INNER ASIA SCREENING DATE TIME
FILM TITLE
LENGTH
Q&A
COUNTRY OF FOCUS
80 min
ONLINE
China, United States
6
96 min
ONLINE
China
6
Saturday, 3/26 2:35pm Beethoven in Beijing
84 min
IN PERSON
China
7
Saturday, 3/26 4:10pm Our Time Machine
81 min
ONLINE
China
7
Thursday, 3/24 12:30pm Americaville
Schedule By Region
Thursday, 3/24 2:00pm
THE MOUNTAIN PATH - my search for a hermit Zen master in China
NORTHEAST ASIA SCREENING DATE TIME
FILM TITLE
LENGTH
Q&A COUNTRY OF FOCUS
Thursday, 3/24 3:50pm
Zero as You Are
84 min
ONLINE
Japan
8
Friday, 3/25
12:55pm
Abandoned: The Stories of Japanese 98 min War Orphans in The Philippines and China
ONLINE
The Philippines, China, Japan
8
Friday, 3/25
2:45pm
KIM IL SUNG's Children
85 min
ONLINE
North Korea, Eastern Europe
9
Friday, 3/25
6:00pm
COMFORT
73 min
IN PERSON
South Korea, China
9
Forget Me Not
86 min
ONLINE
South Korea
10
80 min
IN PERSON
Republic of Korea, United States, Switzerland, Sweden
10
Saturday, 3/26 8:30am
Saturday, 3/26 11:35am Geographies of Kinship 4
PAGE
PAGE
Schedule By Region
SOUTH ASIA SCREENING DATE TIME
FILM TITLE
LENGTH
Thursday, 3/24 5:25pm
DWANDHA (The Duel): A Tale of Two Rebels 52 min
Q&A
COUNTRY OF FOCUS
PAGE
IN PERSON
Sri Lanka
11
Friday, 3/25
10:00am The Ice Cream Sellers
75 min
ONLINE
Bangladesh
11
Friday, 3/25
11:25am Baato
81 min
ONLINE
Nepal
12
87 min
ONLINE
Bhutan
12
Saturday, 3/26 10:05am Kingdom of Archers
SOUTHEAST ASIA & PACIFIC ISLANDS SCREENING DATE TIME
FILM TITLE
LENGTH
Q&A
Friday, 3/25
8:30am
Death of the One who Knows
82 min
Friday, 3/25
4:20pm
Now Is the Past – My Father, Java & the Phantom Films
88 min
Banyak Ayam Banyak Rejeki (Many Chickens, Lots of Luck)
Saturday, 3/26 5:40pm
COUNTRY OF FOCUS
PAGE
Indonesia
13
IN PERSON
Japan, Indonesia, and Netherlands
13
102 min
ONLINE
Indonesia/Yogyakarta (and Central Java)
14
ASIAN AMERICAN
5
SCREENING DATE TIME
FILM TITLE
LENGTH
Q&A
COUNTRY OF FOCUS
Saturday, 3/26 1:05pm
Far East Deep South
77 min
IN PERSON
United States
PAGE
14
Americaville
Thursday, March 24, 12:30pm
China & Inner Asia
Directed by Adam James Smith. 2020. China / United States. 80 minutes. Country/Region Featured: China, United States Online Q&A with Adam James Smith Hidden among Beijing’s northern mountain range, a replica of the Wyoming town of Jackson Hole promises to deliver the American dream to its several thousand Chinese residents. In Americaville, Annie Liu escapes China’s increasingly uninhabitable capital city to pursue happiness, freedom, romance, and spiritual fulfillment in Jackson Hole; only to find the American idyll harder to attain than what was promised to her. Distributed by Adam James Smith, Archfilm www.americavillefilm.com
THE MOUNTAIN PATH - my search for a hermit Zen master in China
Thursday, March 24, 2:00pm
A film by Edward A. Burger. Produced by Agnes Lam. 2021. USA/China. 96 minutes. Country/Region Featured: China Online Q&A with Edward Burger Inspired by China's Tang Dynasty hermit poets, Buddhist filmmaker Edward A. Burger went to China at the age of 23 to learn Mandarin and find an old mountain hermit to teach him Zen. THE MOUNTAIN PATH takes viewers into the Zhongnan Mountains to meet Burger’s life-long teacher and other recluse Buddhist practitioners living in the surrounding valleys. We witness the practical everyday challenges of mountain solitude, while the hermits share precious teachings on life, death, and the journey within.
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Distributed by One Mind Productions, LLC www.onemindproductions.com
Beethoven in Beijing
Saturday, March 26, 2:35pm
China & Inner Asia
A film by Jennifer Lin and Sharon Mullally. 2021. USA. 86 minutes. Country/Region Featured: China IN-PERSON Q&A with Jennifer Lin Beethoven in Beijing spotlights the resurgence of classical music in China through the legacy of the Philadelphia Orchestra, the first American orchestra to perform in China in 1973. Following the end of China’s Cultural Revolution, when Western classical music was banned in favor of politically themed works, the onset of “Beethoven fever” began. Narrated by American and Chinese musicians and historians, the film explores the impact of the Philadelphia Orchestra’s historic tour on China both then and now. Distributed by History Making Productions. www.historymakingproductions.com | beethoveninbeijing.com
Our Time Machine
Saturday, March 26, 4:10pm
A film by Yang Sun & S. Leo Chiang. 2020. China. 81 minutes. Country/Region Featured: China ONLINE Q&A with S. Leo Chiang When artist Maleonn realizes that his father suffers from Alzheimer’s disease, he creates “Papa’s Time Machine,” a magical, autobiographical stage performance featuring life-size mechanical puppets. Through the production of this play, the two men confront their mortality before time runs out and memories are lost forever. Distributed by Passion River Films. http://edu.passionriver.com/our-time-machine-documentary.html
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Zero as You Are
Thursday, March 24, 3:50pm
Northeast Asia
Directed by Miyuki Tokoi. 2020. Japan. 84 minutes. Country/region featured: Japan ONLINE Q&A with Miyuki Tokoi. 24-year-old Sky Kobayashi has been trying to find his true gender since childhood. Born as a girl, he was one of the first students in Japan to persuade a junior high school to accept a female as a boy. At 20, he underwent surgeries so that he could legally become a man, the youngest case in Japan. But this was just the beginning. Sky then discovered that he does not identify as a man either and is now searching beyond binary genders. We followed Sky for nine years on his journey through genders. Distributed by MUSUBI Productions. https://musubiproductions.amebaownd.com | https://konomi.work
Abandoned: The Stories of Japanese War Orphans in The Philippines and China
Friday, March 25, 12:55pm
A film by Hiroyasu Obara. 2020. Japan. 98 minutes. Country/region featured: Philippines, China, Japan ONLINE Q&A with Eri Kitada (Rutgers University-New Brunswick). Addressing family and transnationalism, citizenship and empire, and history and memory across East and Southeast Asia, this documentary traces forgotten and disappeared Japanese communities in the Philippines and former Manchuria from the perspective and testimonies of orphans left behind. Now approaching the end of their lives, children of former migrants share how families grapple with legal, economic, and emotional questions of historically fraught diaspora communities from areas colonized or occupied by Japan which were destroyed during and after World War II, along with the Japanese empire itself.
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Distributed by K-Project | http://wasure-mono.com/
KIM IL SUNG's Children
Friday, March 25, 2:45pm
Northeast Asia
Directed by Young Kim. 2020. Korea. 85 minutes. Country/region featured: North Korea, Eastern Europe ONLINE Q&A Young Kim. This documentary is a true story of the North Korean orphans sent out to Eastern Europe in the 1950s. During the war, orphans in the North and South totaled 100,000. While South Korean orphans moved to Europe and the United States through ‘International Adoption’, the North Korea government choose a unique method called ‘Commissioned Education’. In contrast with adoption, it was a new life for orphans in foreign countries practicing Socialist Cosmopolitanism, or Solidarity of socialism, helping each other evacuate war orphans to safe places. The story of children who were shaped by KIM IL SUNG's ideal, instead of Stalin's provides a key to understanding North Korea. Distributed by Docustory Production | https://www.2twohomes.com/
COMFORT
Friday, March 25, 6:00pm
Directed by Emmanuel Moonchil PARK. 2020. South Korea. 73 minutes. Country/region featured: South Korea, China IN PERSON Q&A with Emmanuel Moonchil PARK. KIM Soonak was a survivor of Japanese military sexual slavery and so much more. Her life after the war was another war in itself. In order to survive, she engaged in prostitution, US camptown sex trade, and manual labor. Weaving interviews of activists, archive footage, animation, and the recital of testimonies, the film reconstructs the life stories of the late KIM Soonak. Distributed by the filmmaker. Contact:
[email protected]
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Forget Me Not
Saturday, March 26, 8:30am
Directed by Sun Hee Engelstoft. 2019. Korea. 83 minutes. Country/region featured: South Korea ONLINE Q&A with Sun Hee Engelstoft.
Northeast Asia
Forget Me Not follows three unwed mothers staying at a shelter in the countryside on Jeju Island in South Korea. Each mother must decide if she wants to keep the baby or give it up for adoption. Engelstoft’s sensitive portrait brings us close to a forbidden world and through her own experience as a Korean adoptee, she gives a deeply personal and extraordinary insight into a culture in which women can't choose their own fate. Distributed by Grasshopper Film. http://store.grasshopperfilm.com/forget-me-not.html http://www.finalcutforreal.dk/forget-me-not
Geographies of Kinship
Saturday, March 26, 11:35am
Produced and directed by Deann Borshay Liem. 2019. USA. 80 minutes. Country/region featured: Republic of Korea, United States, Switzerland, Sweden IN-PERSON Q&A with Deann Borshay Liem. In this powerful tale about the rise of Korea’s global adoption program, four adult adoptees return to their country of birth and recover the personal histories that were erased when they were adopted. Raised in foreign families, each sets out on a journey to reconnect with their roots, mapping the geographies of kinship that bind them to a homeland they never knew. Geographies of Kinship will have its premiere national broadcast as part of America Reframed on public television’s World Channel on May 19th, 2022.
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Distributed by Mu Films. www.mufilms.org
DWANDHA (The Duel): A Tale of Two Rebels
Thursday, March 24, 5:25pm
South Asia
Directed by Udan Fernando. 2019. Sri Lanka. 52 minutes. Country/region featured: Sri Lanka IN-PERSON Q&A with Udan Fernando. DWANDHA (Duel) is about two prominent and influential leaders of two rebel movements and insurrections in Sri Lanka from the South and North. The film unfolds a period of six decades of their life trajectories, particularly the childhood experiences that defined their destinies and their subsequent political choices which eventually influenced many young followers. Now in their late seventies, having survived to tell the tale, they reminisce the history they created and failed to create. Distributed by the filmmaker. Contact:
[email protected]
The Ice Cream Sellers
Friday, March 25, 10:00am
A film by Sohel Rahman. 2021. Bangladesh. 75 minutes. Country/region featured: Bangladesh. ONLINE Q&A with Sohel Rahman. The Ice Cream Sellers is a story of two siblings and the genocide survivors of the Rohingya community who fled from Myanmar into Bangladesh after a brutal genocide. While most of the Rohingya people were exhausted from the weight of their trauma, the two siblings began their new life with hard work, selling cheap ice cream door to door in the world´s largest refugee camp in Cox’s Bazar, Chittagong, Bangladesh. Their aim is to earn enough money to bribe officials for the release of their father from prison in Myanmar. 11
Distributed by the filmmaker. Contact:
[email protected] | https://www.facebook.com/afilmbysohelrahman
Baato
Friday, March 25, 11:25am
A film by Lucas Millard and Kate Stryker. 2020. Nepal / USA. 81 minutes. Country/region featured: Nepal ONLINE Q&A with Lucas Millard
South Asia
Every winter Mikma and her family travel by foot from their village deep in the Himalaya of Nepal to sell local medicinal plants in urban markets. This year, construction of a new highway to China has begun in their roadless valley, and things are never going to be the same. With the new road will come new challenges, new opportunities, and ultimately a new way of being to those who live along its path. Distributed by Grasshopper Film http://store.grasshopperfilm.com/baato.html | https://baatofilm.com/
Kingdom of Archers
Saturday, March 26, 10:05am
Directed by Robert Hixon Hanson. 2021. USA. 87 minutes. Country/region featured: Bhutan ONLINE Q&A with Robert Hixon Hanson Traditional archery matches are community-wide events involving song, dance, food, and drink in Bhutan, but internal and external forces are changing the game. Imported high-tech equipment is replacing traditional bamboo bows and arrows, and a government campaign has introduced international-style archery competition to every school. Through individual stories intertwined with interviews from the country’s leaders, this film explores many facets of archery in Bhutan, addressing the challenges of cultural preservation against the forces of modernization, westernization, and economic development. 12
Distributed by Passion River Films | http://edu.passionriver.com/kingdom-of-archers.html
Death of the One who Knows
Friday, March 25, 8:30am
Southeast Asia & Pacific Islands
Directed by Dana Rappoport. 2020. France. 82 minutes. Country/region featured: Indonesia
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In the Toraja highlands of Sulawesi (Indonesia), Lumbaa is one of the last masters of ritual speech. After his forced conversion to Pentecostalism, he is compelled to stop all his ritual activity and oratory. Concerned by the disappearance of “those who know”, a young Catholic priest named Yans Sulo sets out in search of the society’s ancient oral genres, seeking to invent new forms that would keep them alive. The two men meet. But it is too late. By recounting the life and death of Lumbaa, the film shows how the intrusion of world religion disrupts a Southeast Asian society. Distributed by LE MIROIR. CONTACT: Gabriel CHABANIER, producer
[email protected]
Now Is the Past – My Father, Java & the Phantom Films
Friday, March 25, 4:20pm
Directed by Shin-ichi Ise. 2021. Japan. 88 minutes. Country/region featured: Japan, Indonesia, and the Netherlands IN-PERSON Q&A with Shin-ichi Ise. During WWII, Japan occupied many regions in Asia, claiming release from European colonialism. Chounosuke Ise, a Japanese film editor, created a variety of propaganda movies in Indonesia to rationalize Japan’s hegemony in Asia. ‘Now is the Past’ examines the journey of his son, Shin-ichi Ise, a Japanese documentary filmmaker who started research 30 years ago while following his father’s path. Meanwhile, almost 130 of senior Ise’s propaganda films were preserved at the Netherlands Institute for Sound and Vision. The son has tried to see the truth of war in Indonesia by seeking the father’s work. Distributed by Ise Film. | www.isefilm.com
Southeast Asia & Pacific Islands
Banyak Ayam Banyak Rejeki (Many Chickens, Lots of Luck)
Directed by Önar Önarsson & Riboet Akbar. Produced by Koes Yuliadi & Dag Yngvesson. 2020. Indonesia. 102 minutes. Country/region featured: Indonesia / Yogyakarta and Central Java. ONLINE Q&A with Dag Yngvesson and Koes Yuliadi. Banyak Ayam Banyak Rejeki is a hybrid film that documents the growth of critical perspectives in three very different Indonesian women who happen to share the same husband. Made over the course of 11 years in the city of Yogyakarta, the film’s unusually lengthy process compelled its participants to engage with major social and political shifts that radically alter the courses of the narrative and their lives. Drawing on local cinematic wisdom, satire and humor are deployed as “safe” ways to address rapidly expanding Islamic conservatism and vigilantism and the complex effects of social media on individual agency. Self-distributed by 5 Monkeys & A Duck | Contact:
[email protected]
Asian American
Far East Deep South
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Saturday, March 26, 5:40pm
Saturday, March 26, 1:05pm
Directed by Larissa Lam. Produced by Baldwin Chiu. 2020. USA. 77 minutes. Country/region featured: Mississippi, USA IN-PERSON Q&A with Larissa Lam and Baldwin Chiu. When a Chinese-American man from California, travels to Mississippi to visit the grave of his father who abandoned him as a baby, he and his family stumble upon surprising revelations that change their lives. Along the way, they meet a diverse group of local residents and historians, who shed light on the racially complex history of Chinese immigrants in the segregated South. Their emotional journey leads them to discover how deep their roots run in America but how the Chinese Exclusion Act separated their family for generations. Distributed by New Day Films. | newday.com | FarEastDeepSouth.com
AAS 2022 FILM EXPO Curator: Jason Finkelman, Global Arts Performance Initiatives, Krannert Center for the Performing Arts; AsiaLENS Film Series, Center for East Asian and Pacific Studies, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. Film Reviewers:
AEMS & AAS
Tim Liao, Head, Department of Sociology; Professor of Sociology, Statistics, and East Asian Languages and Cultures, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. Misumi Sadler, Director, Center for East Asian and Pacific Studies; Associate Professor of Japanese Linguistics and Pedagogy, East Asian Languages and Cultures, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. Mara L. Thacker, Associate Professor, Global Popular Culture and South Asian Studies Librarian, University Library, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. Matthew S. Winters, Associate Professor and Associate Head for Graduate Programs, Department of Political Science, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign.
DID YOU KNOW?
You can add films to your Mobile App schedule and invite a friend. Download the AAS 2022 Mobile App:
https://guidebook.com/g/aas2022/ 15
AEMS & AAS
The CENTER FOR EAST ASIAN AND PACIFIC STUDIES (CEAPS) AT THE UNIVERSITY OF ILLINOIS AT URBANA-CHAMPAIGN is the steward of campus-wide teaching, research, programming, and outreach on East Asia, as well as Southeast Asia and the Pacific. Asian Educational Media Service (AEMS) is an engagement program of CEAPS promoting the understanding of Asian cultures and peoples by assisting educators at all levels, from elementary schools to colleges and universities, in finding resources for learning and teaching about Asia. Established in 1998, AEMS has curated the Association for Asia Studies Film Expo at the annual conference since 2011, and the AsiaLENS Film Series at the University of Illinois since 2008. CEAPS formed The East Asia National Resource Center Consortium in partnership with the East Asian Studies Center at Indiana University, Bloomington in 2005. The IL/IN Consortium has flourished as a Title VI program of the U.S. Department of Education since 2006 and comprises one of the largest faculty concentrations and most rigorous training programs on East Asian scholarship in the Midwest. www.ceaps.illinois.edu The ASSOCIATION FOR ASIAN STUDIES (AAS) is a non-profit dedicated to the advancement of the field of Asian Studies through international exchange, networking, publications, research support, and career development. With over 5,500 members worldwide, representing all regions and countries of Asia and all academic disciplines, the AAS is the largest organization of its kind. Through its publications, online resources, regional conferences, and annual conference, the AAS provides its members with a unique and invaluable professional network. www.asianstudies.org
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230 International Studies Building 910 S. Fifth Street, Champaign, IL 61820 Phone : 217.333.7273
[email protected] www.ceaps.illinois.edu
105 South Gregory, 2nd Floor
Urbana, Illinois 61801 Phone: 217-333-9597
[email protected]
www.aems.illinois.edu
Association for Asian Studies 825 Victors Way, Suite 310
Ann Arbor, MI 48108 Phone: 734-665-2490
www.asianstudies.org